Julianne Moore to Join ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ Movie

Julianne Moore has joined the cast of Universal Pictures’ “Dear Evan Hansen” and will portray Heidi Hansen, the mother of Evan Hansen.

“Dear Evan Hansen,” a Tony-winning musical, opened on Broadway in 2016. The story follows a high schooler with social anxiety who gets caught up in a lie after a classmate’s family mistakes one of Hansen’s letters for their son’s suicide note.

Universal acquired the feature film rights in late 2018. Stephen Chbosky (“Wonder”) will direct from a script by Steven Levenson, who wrote the book for the stage musical. Marc Platt (“La La Land”) and Adam Siegel will produce for their Universal-based Marc Platt Productions. Ben Platt, who originated the part and won a Tony for his performance, is expected to reprise the title role. He’s the son of Marc Platt.

Universal announced last week that Amy Adams will portray Cynthia Murphy, mother of the characters Connor and Zoe Murphy. Amandla Stenberg will appear as high school senior Alana — in an expanded role from the stage production — and she will perform a song in the film. Universal’s senior vice president of production Sara Scott and director of development Lexi Barta will oversee production on behalf of the studio.

Moore won an Oscar in 2015 for “Still Alice” and was nominated for “Boogie Nights,” “The End of the Affair,” “Far From Heaven” and “The Hours.” She’ll be seen next in the Gloria Steinem biopic “The Glorias” in a Sept. 30 release on Amazon Prime Video.

Moore is represented by WME, Management 360 and Edelstein, Laird & Sobel.